1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical therapeutic apparatus, more particularly to an optical therapeutic apparatus that is adapted to be worn overhead or around a wearer's ear.
2. Description of the Background Art
A majority of people of today have long working hours and hence stress follows due to lack of leisure time for taking physical exercise. The environment we are living in is often full of disturbing noises so as to cause our nervous system tension, thus leading to constant stress and fatigue. In addition, due to long time working and sitting in front of a computer, one is susceptible to be muscle-bound, that is, to experience much generalized muscular tension. Under such an awful repetition of a stressful environment, our bodily-function ability will easily deteriorate.
However, when we suffer from headache, back pain, etc. due to tension of the nervous system or mental stress, we might visit a doctor, who reminds us not to rely on pain-killing pills for a long period. Rather, he suggests for us to do some massage method in order to relax our body's muscles and mind. Massage treatment can not only relax our muscles, but some forms of massage treatment also stimulate the acupuncture points of the human body. Such stimulation subsequently corrects our nervous centre, and hence stimulates all the endocrine glands in such a manner that the physical function of our body returns to its normal condition.
Some of the well-known common massage treatments, including foot massage, neck-and-shoulder massage, and abdomen massage, are intended for particular parts of the human body. Ear massage also is very common to all people. Because the ear is mainly made up of cartilage, if massaged improperly by force, the force can often lead to blood stasis in the ears and may cause injury to the cartilage and hence deformation of the ears. Improper treatment to the ears cannot bring a healthy advantage, but may cause harm to the ears, and such treatment would not be welcome.
In order to prevent the ear from being massaged improperly by force, low-energy laser, or light beam projection, can be applied to replace the traditional ear massage to stimulate the acupuncture points of the ear. For example, in article of “The Use of Laser on Acupuncture Points for Smoking Cessation” published in American Journal of Acupuncture Vol. 15(2), C. H. Tan, et al., discloses that it is effective for human beings to achieve smoking cessation through the means of projecting laser toward the acupuncture points (acupoints) of the ear to stimulate the acupuncture points of Shenmen, Yuanzhong and Fei. More preferably, when stimulating the acupuncture points of Shenmen, Yuanzhong and Fei, it is better to synchronously stimulate the acupuncture points of Neifenmei and Shenshangxian to obtain better efficiency of smoking cessation.
Moreover, along with the development of laser technology, the traditional acupuncture and moxibustion technology (use of mugwort herb) is being gradually replaced by the laser technology. Through utilizing the special optical properties of laser, energy can be concentrated on the acupuncture points to generate a more curative effect.
However, up to now, the method for stimulating acupuncture points via low-energy laser or light beam projection in the prior art, such as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 7,993,381, U.S. Pat. No. 6,013,096, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,411, still requires manual holding of the laser projecting device to make the laser project toward the acupuncture points exactly, so that it is not only inconvenient for operation, but also may cause the projection position of the laser beam become unstable. Thus, the method in the prior art would cause the reduction of curative effect.